I Carry Your Heart…

This blog post features two songs written by Steve Sweeting — a jazz pianist, songwriter, teacher, and composer who currently lives in New York City.

“I Carry Your Heart” is a song he wrote while living in Shanghai, when he was commissioned by Chinese choral conductor Jie Yi to write a song — based on an American poem — for a festival in Ningbo.

Steve chose an early poem by ee cummings.

A few years later he and I recorded a non-choral version at Doug Hammer’s studio on the north shore of Boston.

I love the images in ee cummings’ poem, and I love the way that Steve set them to music.

And I love Steve.

He and I have been friends since he lived — with a Yamaha grand piano — in a studio apartment above an ice cream store in Brighton, MA.

He and his wife and two children have lived all around planet earth, but we have remained in contact.

Right now he is working on an original musical with lyricist/librettist Geoffrey Goldberg called Piece of Mind.

It is about an 80-year-old former USO dancer named Robert whose mind is failing him.

If you live in the NYC area, Steve and Geoffrey are having two staged readings — on Monday, March 5th at 6pm and on Tuesday, March 6th at 2:00 pm — at the Davenport Theatre (354 W. 45th Street @ 9th Avenue).

It is by invitation only, but you can click on this Piece of Mind link to find out how to be invited…

I love both those songs. I actually asked Marty Freedman, WICN, to play the ee cummings a couple days ago after he played a version I didn’t like as much. Didn’t hear back from my email, tho. I sent him the Amazon link.

I’ve always liked that ee cummings poem. Thank you for sharing the song and these lovely photos and thoughts about Valentine’s Day.
Also–it is a special joy to have someone who has been a friend for many years.

Yes, it is!!! I remembered after I posted my comment on your site that I use the image of crocus pushing through the ground in one of my original songs called “The Beauty All Around.” Not that you want to spend your entire day listening to someone else’s blog posts, but here is a link in case you are curious: https://amusicalifeonplanetearth.wordpress.com/2014/03/ And thank you for reading/listening to THIS blog post.